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Retired Staten Island professor fights to change eating habits

Updated September 5, 2013 at 11:51 AM;Posted September 5, 2013 at 11:37 AM

Shore Photos -- September 4, 2013

Meiers Corners resident Dr. Richard Schwartz was a college professor for nearly 30 years. Today, he teaches, writes and devotes himself to vegetarianism and pairing it with Jewish beliefs.
(Staten Island Advance/Mark Stein)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- From his home in Meiers Corners, Dr. Richard Schwartz is monitoring the world and its environmental state, and cautioning folks on the impact of eating meat.

“I believe that the world is heading toward a climate catastrophe, major food, water and energy scarcities, and other environmental disasters,” said the former Staten Island Community College (SICC) and College of Staten Island (CSI) professor, adding that wildfires in California and across the West Coast of America, as well as floods, heavy rains and drought, are all major concerns that need more attention and can be traced to meat consumption.

In the previous four decades, the former SICC and CSI professor has published several books and more than 200 articles. He’s also recorded over 25 podcasts and claims to have appeared on at least 200 radio shows to talk about the state of the global environment.

“I try to increase the awareness of these threats through my books, talks, articles, and letters to [Staten Island Advance] editors,” he said.

Dr. Schwartz taught at the former Sunnyside school and current Willowbrook campus for a combined 29 years, until retiring in 1999 as a professor emeritus. While teaching, he developed a unique course titled “Mathematics and the Environment” to motivate liberal arts and non-science students who had to enroll in a math course to meet graduation requirements.

The course incorporates mathematics — graphs, ratios, percentages, proportions, graphs and charts — and how it can be used to study and monitor environmental conditions.

It resulted in four authored editions of a textbook, “Mathematics and Global Survival.”

“My pioneering led to environmental math becoming a part of math education nationally,” Schwartz told the Advance.

During his retirement, Schwartz has heavily focused on combining the teachings of Judaism and the practice of vegetarianism. He serves as president emeritus of Jewish Vegetarians of North America and President of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians.

“I argue that a shift toward vegetarianism is a religious imperative because the production and consumption of meat and other animal products violate basic religious mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help hungry people, and pursue peace,” said Schwartz.

His latest goal involves working to restore and transform the ancient Jewish holiday, of Rosh Hashana La B’heimot (New Year’s Day for Livestock Animals) as a day devoted to considering our relationships with animals. The effort includes increasing Jewish teachings on showing compassion to animals and to providing healing for the horrible ways that animals are raised today on factory farms and in other settings, the longtime Staten Islander said.